 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Emme Tomimbang: Making Her Mark |
| The veteran television broadcaster talks frankly about her personal life and amazing career. |
Back to School |
| Serving as teachers’ aides in the classroom,
senior volunteers are making a big difference in the lives of Hawaii’s children. |
DEPARTMENT:
Honolulu’s
Marathon
Man
by Candice Kraughto
At 5:00 a.m. on December 10, when fireworks explode marking the official start of the 34th-annual Honolulu Marathon, Gordon Dugan, wearing Number 73, will be among the 25,000 runners and walkers from all over the world who’ll be participating. Dugan, a Hawaii Kai resident, has finished every Honolulu Marathon since its inception.
 |
|
|
“My race number is my age,” he says. “About 20 years ago, the marathon office let me pick my own number, so I pick my age.”
A retired professor of civil engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dugan entered the inaugural Honolulu Marathon “on a whim” in 1973 at the age of 40. Although he had never run more than eight miles at a stretch before that race, he finished it in three hours and 45 minutes, placing well within the top half of the 151 finishers.
 |
|
|
Encouraged by his performance, Dugan started running seriously, competing in the Boston Marathon; contests in Oregon, Idaho and California; and over 50 “ultra marathons” that were longer than 26 miles. Among the most grueling of these was the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Race, which begins in Squaw Valley, California, and goes through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Auburn, California.
Dugan participated in that challenging competition seven times, placing first in 1980 in the over-40 age group and seventh overall in a field of 250 runners with a personal best finish time of 21 hours and 16 minutes. That year, at age 50, he also crossed the finish line at the Honolulu Marathon with his fastest time of two hours and 56 minutes.
 |
|
|
In addition to enjoying the thrill of competition, Dugan believed running would ward off heart disease—something he has been concerned about since both his father and mother succumbed to it at age 51 and 72, respectively. Three years ago, however, he suffered a heart attack and had to undergo several procedures, including seven angiograms. His doctors said Dugan’s athletic lifestyle may have postponed his heart attack, but he nonetheless was diagnosed with severe atherosclerosis.
Despite this condition and nagging lower back pain and arthritis in his left knee, Dugan plans to participate in the Honolulu Marathon as long as he can, saying it keeps him on a training schedule and “is something to look forward to. Keeping active relaxes me.”
 |
|
|
This year, Dugan plans to walk the route and hopes to complete it in less than seven hours. What he loves most about participating is bumping into old friends, having time for introspection and being able to accomplish a worthy goal at his own steady pace.
Dugan firmly believes that completing a marathon is “more mental conditioning than anything else. You have to have tenacity to finish it.” His regimen consists of 30 to 45 minutes of stretching, back exercises and push-ups every morning. He also walks three to four miles at least six days a week.
Last year, 6,713 people over the age of 50 entered the Honolulu Marathon; 5,738 of them finished the race. What words of wisdom can Dugan offer seniors who are thinking about signing up for a marathon? “Do it,” he says. “Like that Nike shoe commercial, just do it.”
He has been following his own advice for the past 33 years. Only two others have finished every Honolulu Marathon—62-year-old Gary Dill, a Honolulu resident, and 47-year-old Dr. Jerold Chun, who was born and raised on Oahu, but now lives in California.
During the 10th-annual Honolulu Marathon, 15 runners were recognized for completing every marathon up to that point. Those “Final Few” started a fund, deciding that from then on, they would contribute $10 each time they finished the race. The last “Final Few” member standing would walk away with the pot, which Dugan estimates now contains several thousand dollars.
How long will he continue to participate in the Honolulu Marathon? “I won’t be brash and say I’ll do this till I’m 90,” he says. “I’m just taking it one year at a time.”